PA Pushes Mandating Armed Security Guards In Every School

HARRISBURG, PA — Armed security guards could soon be mandated in every school in Pennsylvania, if new proposed legislation gains momentum and is passed into law. Republican advocates of solving gun violence with armaments believe the bill could prevent future tragedies, but the bill faces stiff resistance from Democrats concerned about cost and those weapons falling into the wrong hands in an environment filled with children.

Longtime advocate of the legislation, State Sen. Mike Regan, pointed to a recent school shooting in Nashville which left three children and three adults dead. He said it happened "because an individual with mental health problems was able to gain access to a school building."

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"My perspective on this issue comes from my law enforcement career, in which part of my responsibilities was to secure federal courthouses," Regan wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum. "I have also relied on other credentialed experts in the field of school and building security as I crafted legislative proposals over the years, and they have all said with uniformity that the hiring of trained and vetted armed officers should be every school’s first step when implementing security measures."

The state Senate's conservative education committee, chaired by leading Republicans Kim Ward and Doug Mastriano, advanced the proposed bill to the floor this week along strict party lines in a 6-4 vote.

Under the proposal, at least one trained individual, either a school police officer, resource officer, or school security guard, would be required to stand guard during school hours. That person would be required to maintain regular certifications and be annually accrredited in "position-specific" training, Regan said.

All schools are already allowed to have an armed guard, but only about half of them do, Regan says.

The bill reignites a long simmering front of the politically charged war at the interserction of gun violence and education. Regan has been pushing some form of this bill for months, though it's a far cry from Mastriano's gubernatorial proposal to arm teachers, especially considering that many schools already have an armed guard or designated resource officer.

There is strong opposition to the bill on the left, though that may not come in to play until, or if, the bill passes through the Senate for consideration by the House. Democrats are concered about funding, and in the past have pointed to the dangers of bringing weapons in a closed environment filled with children.

The bill would appear likely to have majority Republican support to pass through the state Senate, and perhaps enough bipartisan appeal to pass through the Democratic House as well. Indeed, Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration has awarded grants for hiring school resource officers (who are typically armed) to schools around the state, although PennLive reports that Shapiro does not support Regan's bill.

Ohter barriers could be whatever symbolic and ideological differences are inherent in the bill, which ascribes the gun crisis to what Republicans typically blame: security and mental health. Democrats, meanwhile, could be hesitant to give credence to legislation that doesn't address what they view as the main cause of gun violence, which is access to deadly weapons.

The full text of the bill can be read online here.